It is known, as for example from German pat. application No. 2,924,379, to cut the end off a coiled metal strip by means of an apparatus provided with a coil-supporting cradle provided with a shear. The cradle is formed of a pair of cradle rollers spaced apart by a distance smaller than the diameter of the smallest coil expected to be encountered by the apparatus. The shear works in a horizontal plane below the coil so that feeding the strip to it is aided by gravity, and so that the cut-off end portions fall naturally away from the balance of the strip.
This guide arrangement normally comprises a guide table that can be tipped to align itself tangentially with the outer surface of the coil or roll of strip. Several rollers are juxtaposed with this guide table and serve to keep the strip in the proper orientation for the shear, so that a square end is produced, as is necessary for various later operations that might be carried out on the cut-off piece.
The apparatus is normally provided with some drive arrangement for the coil in the cradle so that, after a sample piece has been cut off, the balance can be wound back up. A strap is typically wound around the recoiled strip to keep it in position once it is wound up. This type of rewind device is particularly useful in an arrangement used for severing off strip pieces for testing.
Normally the strip is guided between the cradle and the shear by a complex set of guide rollers that insure that it enters the shear at a right angle, even though the coils may vary from between 1.0 m and 2.3 m in diameter. These guide rollers must be displaceable toward and away from the guide and are normally spaced vertically apart.
The main problem with this type of machine is that it is quite complex. This makes it expensive to manufacture, and normally makes maintenance a problem. The complex machinery that is provided around the shear makes servicing of any of this structure rather difficult.